


Orange Zinnias

by Molly_Hats



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Drabble, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-24
Updated: 2018-04-24
Packaged: 2019-04-27 12:08:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14425095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Molly_Hats/pseuds/Molly_Hats
Summary: A familiar someone breaks into Sam’s house after the Winter Soldier press conference.





	Orange Zinnias

“The fact that the U.S. government had a secret division charged entirely with covering up abnormalities was never going to be okay. This is Men in Black, science fiction. But more importantly, this is horror. A government agency in charge of keeping information from the public turned out to be a terrorist organization with Nazi ties, and this puts our ability to trust the government on extremely shaky ground.”

“What I’m worried about is Natasha Romanoff. She’s indoctrinated into this, hook-line-and-sinker, and suddenly comes out of it? We know about so many crimes she’s committed now, under multiple evil regimes she managed to jump from at the last minute. How much can we trust her? She’s either naive or worst a calculating person who puts her own survival above all else, and from what we know of her, I’d say it’s the latter.”

“But you have to remember she was the one who released this information to the public, and there would be no ship-jumping crisis without her direct involvement.”

“Project Insight would have doomed her anyway, when SHIELD showed it’s true colors. Romanoff--”

Sam turned his car off and opened the door, cutting the talk show off. Feeling for his key, he walked up to his doorstep. He opened the door and stopped short.

The dishwasher was on, and he sure as heck hadn’t left it that way. Warily, he crept into his house, leaving the door open. He looked around the corner into the kitchen. A vase full of orange zinnias sat on the table. The vase was his, but the flowers were new. 

A theory forming in his mind, he turned the corner into the kitchen.

Natasha Romanoff stood by the sink, a half-smile on her face, looking the same as ever. “Surprise! Miss me?” 

Sam laughed and shook his head before saying, “You’re going to give me a heart attack someday.”

“I thought I left enough hints.” Natasha said. She nodded to the dishwasher. “I did the dishes. They were piling up and you weren’t home, so I figured I’d do something practical.”

“And the flowers?”

Natasha shrugged, her smile growing a bit. “An apology for dragging you into this that Steve’s refusing to give you.”

“That’s ‘cause it’s unnecessary,” Sam said, crossing his arms. 

“A thank-you, then.”

“Thanks,” Sam said. “I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t break into my house in the future, though.”

“Right,” Natasha said, and she looked genuinely sorry. 

A silence passed between them again, Sam moved over to study the flowers. They were rather carefully arranged in the vase, none of them crushed beneath the others. 

“I saw you at the hearing,” Sam said. “There was pretty extensive news coverage.”

“I could barely see past all of the lights, so there’d better have been,” Natasha said, half-smile back. 

“You meant what you said? About how they need us?”

Natasha rested her hands on the sink rim and met his eyes with hers. “Every word.”

Sam gently ran a finger over one of the flowers. The soft petals still dipped under his light touch. “It’s not over with taking down SHIELD/Hydra. It’s never going to be over, is it?”

“No,” Natasha said. “It’s not.” Her words were brutally honest, but her tone was kind, and Sam appreciated the combination.

Sam crossed his arms and gave a half-smile to match Natasha’s. “Let’s do this, then.”

“Let’s do this,” she repeated.


End file.
